Romaphobia Among Serbian Adolescents: The Role of National In‐group Attitudes and Perceived Threat

Abstract

This study employed the integrated threat theory to examine Serbian adolescents' attitudes towards the Roma. The sample consisted of 687 secondary school students (mean age 17), of whom 53% were females. In a survey‐based study, we assessed adolescents' national in‐group attitudes (i.e., nationalism), their feelings toward the Roma, and their perception of economic and symbolic threat. Findings suggest that perceived threat to either real resources or worldviews of the dominant group was related to more negative attitudes towards the Roma minority. Further, Romaphobia was positively related to adolescents' nationalism and this relationship was partially mediated by perceived economic and symbolic threat. The theoretical and educational implications are discussed.

The pathogen paradox: Evidence that perceived COVID-19 threat is associated with both pro- and anti-immigrant attitudes

“…Overall, Study 1 provided evidence in favor of a potential link between perceived COVID-19 threat and outgroup attitudes, suggesting perceived threat (i.e., the extent to which individuals expose themselves to COVID-19 related content), rather than objective threat (i.e., number of COVID-19 cases), to predict lower anti-immigrant attitudes. This replicates typical patterns from the literature which highlights the weight of threat perceptions in shaping xenophobic attitudes (e.g., romaphobia, see Ljujic, Vedder, & Dekker, 2012). Findings also confirm previous research showing the relative importance of a more subjective perception of threat over objective threat (in the context of perceived diversity, e.g., Celikkol et al, 2016).…”

Ethnic, Familial, and Religious Identity of Roma Adolescents in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Kosovo, and Romania in Relation to Their Level of Well‐Being

“…Roma are an important group to study because of their sociopolitical context and long history of marginalization, accompanied by lack of formal education, high official unemployment, and little to no access to health care and social services. Roma are often viewed as a threat by mainstreamers (Ljujic, Vedder, & Dekker, ). They are the most prominent indigenous ethnic minority in Europe that has lived there for centuries and, unlike other ethnic minority groups, does not have a homeland or country with which to identify.…”

Perceived threat and prejudice towards immigrants in Finland: A study among early, middle, and late Finnish adolescents

“…In Finland, few studies have empirically investigated threats posed by immigrants to the majority Finnish population (e.g., Croucher, Aalto, Hirvonen, & Sommier, 2013;Nshom & Croucher, 2014) and even though ITT (Stephen & Stephan, 1996 has been widely used in other parts of the world to understand threats posed by immigrants and minority groups among different samples (e.g., Curseu, Stoop, & Schalk, 2007;González et al, 2008;Ljujic, Vedder, & Dekker, 2012;Scheibner & Morrison, 2009;Stephan, Ybarra, Martinez, Schwarzwald, & Turk-Kaspa, 1998), these studies have not considered how differently early, middle, and late adolescents percieve immigrants as threatening. The goal of this study is to fill this research gap.…”